Abstract · The central topic of my research was the examination of the concept of death. The question has been approached primarily through the Roma children’s concept of death, - highlighting the 7-8 year old age group – on the other hand through the concepts of death and the related rebirth in Roma folktales.

My aim was principally to allocate the position of the examined children in the phases determined by Mária Ilona Nagy and to investigate how they approach the fact of the death and what kind of concept do they have about death. In addition, I have observed whether the content of their own folktales influences their borning concept of death. In the course of the research I aimed to analyse the pattern in folktales in order to get closer to the Roma culture and to understand it better.

The visual representation of death and group interviews have been eployed as methods. I used the research method of Maare E. Tamm and Anna Granqvist (1995), and to the group interviews the Concept of Death Interview (CDI) edited by Loomis (1981).

The findings from the research illustrate, that children are concerned about the fact of death and they speak openly about this object, which is already a taboo among adults. The visual representation of biological concept of death was dominant in the tested group regardless of gender, and the children gave most likely physical explanation to the questions concerning the cause of death.

Abstract · Our society is characterized by the aspiration to live a full life, which means constant activity and ability to work. We live so much in this way that we forget about those, who cannot perform as well as the accurate, direct and well-favored person who has been held up as a model. We have learned to live alone, so we can achieve the expectations more efficiently, and maybe we realize only at the end of the life how lonely we are. The loneliness of the dying person seems to be insolvable in Valentin Rasputin’s novel entitled The Last Term, where the main character has to leave this world alone, in spite of the vainly intent of others to go with. The different rites of dying and leave-taking are present only in their remains, through this they lose their original function.